MORE than 280,000 learners in the region are vaccinated against Covid-19, based on the data of the Department of Education in Davao Region (DepEd-Davao) on August 11, 2022.
DepEd-Davao spokesperson Jenielito Atillo said that as of August 11, 2022, a total of 284,696 students are vaccinated in time for the opening of the academic year. This covers the year levels in elementary school, junior high school (JHS), senior high school (SHS), and those in the alternative learning system (ALS).
To compare, 284,969 students are vaccinated out of 887,656 enrolled in the region in elementary, JHS, and SHS based on DepEd-Davao data as of August 11.
Of the 887,656, the biggest number of enrollees in both public and private schools are in elementary school with 434,491 students but only 45,977 are vaccinated.
The same goes for SHS wherein out of the total 150,385 enrolled, only 62,771 students are vaccinated.
However, in JHS, more than half of the total 302,780 enrollees are vaccinated, specifically 167,125 inoculated students.
Atillo added that 8,823 students in the alternative learning system are also vaccinated but there is no data given as to how many ALS students are currently enrolled.
Atillo said during the I-Speak media forum that the number is promising.
“That’s quite a huge number already given the fact that the only effort there is encouragement,” he said.
He mentioned that although vaccination is not mandated for school, parents are highly encouraged to have their children inoculated as protection against coronavirus, especially since the government is pushing for wide-scale face-to-face (F2F) classes.
Meanwhile, a total of 951,312 students region-wide are already enrolled in all levels, including kinder, elementary, JHS, and SHS. Atillo said this is 68 percent of the total enrollees last year which is 1,395,893.
Atillo said they are optimistic they will surpass last year’s numbers despite a week left since the start of the school year. “One week to ask is a huge time for the enrollment. Based on experience, kung kanusa nagaduol atong deadline diha mag daghan ang magpa-enroll,” he said.
The Academic Year 2022 - 2023 is set to begin on August 22, 2022, combining F2F classes and blended or modular learning but full-blown F2F classes are expected by November this year, especially for public schools.
In an interview with SunStar Davao on August 8, Atillo said all public schools are ready to begin classes come opening day of the school year, while some private institutions have already started.
“We are ready, we are just waiting for August 22 to come,” he said. ICM